Open Mon–Sun 11am–11pm
Westfield has pretty much every type of cuisine one could wish for. The Real Greek, within the string of restaurants situated at the rear of the shopping Mecca, is a restaurant specialising in authentic and low-fat Greek food.
I brought along my always-on-a-diet mother. We were greeted by a rather flustered waitress (probably because there were approximately three waitresses and a bum on every seat). Even though the place was packed, the open-plan kitchen and wall of windows stopped it becoming claustrophobic; it was just very noisy. The décor is modern and slightly quirky with a segmented wall of wine bottles and bizarre ceiling lamps that look like upturned waste paper baskets.
We were advised to start with a cold mezze and then move onto hot. Every dish on the lengthy menu has the calorie content in brackets next to it. We chose Greek flatbread (£2.45), melitzanosalata (£4.15), taramasalata (£4.15), melon, mint and feta cheese salad (£4.25) and hummus (£4.15) – all served in rustic terracotta cake stands. The taramasalata was addictive with its creamy, smoky flavour. It was such a treat to have the real thing rather than the luminous pink goo you get from most supermarkets. The melon and mint salad was refreshing, zingy and cleansed the palette well. However the melitzanosalata was overly watery and lacked taste. Sloshed down with an ice-cold glass of lightly wooded chardonnay, I felt as if I could be back in Crete again with stray cats tangled round my ankles and sun pelting my skin.
For our hot mezze, we ordered lamb kefte (£5.35), grilled haloumi (£4.75), tiger prawns with chilli and garlic (£6.25), grilled kalamari (£6) with a side of cos salad (£3.50) and saffron rice (£3.45). The kefte was perfectly moist with a dense meaty flavour; the haloumi was also perfectly cooked and not squeaky; the kalamari was a little too chewy and the cos salad was uninspiring.
We finished our meal wanting something a bit indulgent as we had both been very aware of how few calories we had consumed. I went for the chocolate mousse cake (£5.95) and mum chose the raspberry and honey yoghurt sundae (£4.50). The mousse cake didn’t disappoint; light in texture but dense in flavour. Mum couldn’t get enough of her sundae topped elegantly with green pistachios, saying it was ‘simply lovely.’
We rounded the evening off with a cold, sweet red dessert wine, Mavrodaphne (£3) traditionally served on ice, which tasted like chocolate-dipped plums, and a thick, intense Turkish coffee (£2.50).
